Shloka 7
यदा रजस्वलां कृष्णां दःशासनवशे स्थिताम् | सभायां प्राहस: कर्ण क््व ते धर्मस्तदा गत:
yadā rajasvalāṃ kṛṣṇāṃ duḥśāsana-vaśe sthitām | sabhāyāṃ prāhasaḥ karṇa kva te dharmas tadā gataḥ ||
Sañjaya berkata: “Karṇa, ketika Draupadī—Kṛṣṇā—dalam keadaan haid dan tidak berdaya di bawah kuasa Duḥśāsana di balairung, engkau mengejeknya. Ke manakah dharma-mu pada saat itu?”
संजय उवाच
Educational Q&A
Moral authority in war or debate is undermined by past complicity in injustice. Sañjaya confronts Karna with ethical inconsistency: one cannot claim dharma while having mocked a vulnerable woman during a grave violation in the assembly.
In the Karṇa Parva, Sañjaya recalls the earlier dice-hall episode to rebuke Karna. He points to Karna’s derision of Draupadī—then under Duḥśāsana’s power in the sabhā—as evidence that Karna abandoned dharma at a decisive moment, foreshadowing the moral reckoning of the war.